Description: Learn about offline processing on your SkyTab POS.

Offline Payments Overview

What is Offline Processing?

Offline processing allows you to continue accepting payments when your internet connection is down or cannot reach the payment gateway. Transactions initiated during this period are stored on the device until the connection is re-established, at which point they are processed for authorization.

Offline processing can occur due to service provider outages, hardware failures, or issues upstream in the payment processing flow (e.g., at the gateway level).
Individual devices or stations can go offline while others may remain connected.

Going Offline: What happens?

When the POS loses internet connection, it automatically switches to Offline Mode after a failed payment authorization attempt.
A device in Offline Mode is indicated by a card icon with a line through it . in the upper right corner where the Notification Center is located.
Once the system processes an offline transaction, it will continue in Offline Mode for the next 30 minutes to avoid repeated connection failures.
Note: You can bring the device back online within 30 minutes if the connection is restored. Select Go Online in the Payments section of the Notification Center's Operational Status window.

During Offline Mode, the following features are unavailable:

Pre-Authorizations
Refunds
Lighthouse Data Syncing: Lighthouse may show pending transactions as “approved” even though they are awaiting final authorization.

How to Handle Pending Transactions?

When your POS reconnects to the internet:

The system will automatically process pending transactions one at a time, sending a transaction every two minutes until the queue is cleared.
If a transaction cannot be authorized (e.g., insufficient funds), it will require manual intervention.

Note: Allow time for pending transactions to process. A general rule is to allow 1 hour per 30 pending transactions for the queue to fully clear. Do not clear data on terminals or devices that have pending transactions.

How are Batch Processing and Reports Affected During an Outage?

During an outage, batch processing may be affected if payments have not yet been authorized before the batch time. Payments from offline mode may appear in Lighthouse reports even though they haven’t been fully authorized, potentially leading to discrepancies in daily reports.

Offline Payments FAQs

What notification do I receive on SkyTab when I'm processing offline?

From version 1.96 and above, SkyTab will detail all of the system's Operational Statuses in our new Notification Center.

Are all current devices capable of accepting offline payments?

All PIN pads attached to the terminal are capable of taking offline payments. SkyTab Mobile devices do not support offline payments.

When attempting to take Credit payments via the Customer-Facing Display (CFD) when Offline Payments is active. There is a prompt and messaging on the SkyTab Workstation to notify the employee that the CFD payments are not available in offline mode and to use the onboard reader instead of CFD.

If you need assistance, please contact Shift4 Support via phone or chat.

Which conditions trigger payments to be taken offline?

The following conditions will trigger offline processing:

Network disconnect
Note: The PIN Pad and terminal still need to be connected to the same network.
Internet unreachable
Gateway unreachable
Processor unreachable

Do a high percentage of declines received from the gateway or processor trigger offline processing?

Not if the processor is online. If declines are due to a processor outage, then the outage will trigger offline processing.

Can EMV chip and PIN still be used in Offline Mode?

Yes. When using a PAX device, transactions in Offline Mode will continue to function as it is in online mode.

Can digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.) still be used offline?

Yes.

How long can transactions be stored and still successfully be processed?

Transactions can be stored for up to two days without any implications. Each PIN pad stores and tries to upload transactions constantly in the background when the location is back online. The terminal will try to reach out to the gateway for a maximum of two days to update the status of a stored transaction, so if the outage goes beyond the two-day period, there might be some discrepancies in reports.

Do different devices store different amounts of offline transactions?

No.

Can Offline Payments be manually enabled?

Yes (version 1.96.0 and upwards), you can select Enable Offline Payments from the Notification Center.

Are there any other limitations to offline processing?

While offline, refund and pre-authorization features are disabled. It is recommended that you close out a ticket or add a tip on the terminal that performed the initial authorization.

My system went into offline mode during the service disruption. Is there anything I need to do?

Offline mode is designed to allow transaction processing while online transaction processing capability is being restored. Transactions processed in offline mode are held locally at the point of sale and sent to Shift4 once service is restored. If you are still showing alerts or messages on your system that you are still processing offline, you may need to restart certain services. If you have questions or concerns, please contact Shift4 Support via phone or chat.

My system did not go into offline mode during the service disruption. How do I prevent this from happening again?

It is critical to ensure that your POS product has received all the appropriate updates needed to function properly in offline mode. As a first step, please review the offline guide for offline payments mode configuration. If you have questions about whether your system has the necessary updates to support offline mode, please contact Shift4 Support via phone or chat.

I was not able to adjust the tip on my POS during the service disruption. What do I need to do?

When a system enters offline mode, tip adjustments should normally take place as if the system were online. While there may be a brief window of time during which the system was not checked or tip adjustments while entering the offline mode, you should be able to process normally once the system has entered the offline mode. Once the system is online, transaction data should synchronize in order to allow normal tip adjustments online prior to your batch time. You should always process tip adjustments from the POS whenever possible, however, there are alternative solutions via Lighthouse Business Manager (LBM).

The following guides may be of assistance:

If you need assistance in researching or resolving transactions for which an adjustment is needed, please contact Shift4 Support via phone or chat for additional assistance.

I have cardholders complaining of double charges they received while the service disruption occurred. What should I do?

It's possible that during an outage or service interruption issue, transactions processed by the POS did not receive a proper authorization response, thus resulting in multiple authorization attempts on the same card. The transactions associated with these authorization attempts should be reflected in Lighthouse Business Manager where the merchant should be able to identify them and make adjustments as needed. Please review this guide on making transaction adjustments.

If you need assistance in researching possible duplicate transactions for which an adjustment may be needed, please contact Shift4 Support via phone or chat for additional assistance.

I haven’t been paid for some of the transactions I processed during the service disruption. What should I do?

First, check and see if your POS is still in offline mode. If so, offline transactions will not be paid until you are back online and transactions processed offline have been uploaded to Shift4. Once you are processing online normally, you can verify whether transactions have uploaded and whether they got batched later than expected. You can confirm if the batch was submitted partially or later than usual by logging in to Lighthouse Business Manager and navigating to the Archived Batches.

Internet Connection FAQs

Will Payments be offline if there’s an internet disconnection?

Yes, With Offline Payments enabled; otherwise, any card payment will be declined.

Can I still make edits and configuration changes to my menu or other configurations while offline?

While these changes will be saved on the POS where they were made, it is not recommended as no other stations will have these changes synced, and creating multiple duplicate records across stations may cause issues when normal syncing resumes.

Will my local network, printers, KDS, etc., work in Offline Mode?

These will work as long as the local network is connected. Visit the Notification Center Operational Status Feature to check your local network connection in the Notification Center.

What Can We Help You With?

SkyTab POS Offline Payments Overview and FAQs